Knitting-machine needle.



R. W. SCOTT.

KNITTING MACHINE NEEDLE.

APPLICATION FILED 00124. 19m.

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ROBERT W. SCOTT, F NEW YORK, N. Y.,'ASSIGNOR, BY MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, TO SCOTT & WILLIAMS, INCORPORATED, A CORPORATION 0F MASSACHUSETTS.

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, KNITTING-MACHINE NEEDLE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application led October 24, 1916. Serial N0. 127,-317.

To all whom it may concern: y

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. SCOTT, `a citizen ofthe United States, and resident of New York city, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented new 'and useful Improvements in Knitting- Machine ileedlesof which the following is a specification. s, l My invention relates to that class 0f knitting machine needles having integral projecting butts to engage cams or other e1ements of the `machine in which they are used,

objects of my invention being to provide a needle accurate in dimensions from tip to butt, which Ycan be made from wire by an improved and simplied seriesof bending, flattening, swaging, machining and other well-known` operations, and which shall be better adapted than bent wire needles at present known to resist the wear and strain of use. c

As wire knittino machine needles are at Apresent constructed, the wire of which the stem or shank of the needle is composed is doubled upon itself so as to form a projecting butt, and then flattened to litin the groove of the needle carrier. The primary member of the butt [that is to say, the member which Vrises directly from the stein of the needle] receives littlev or no support from the secondary or' reversely bent member,

which being free, except at the bend at the outer end of the butt,yields to lateral thrust;

hence the greater part of the wear and strain upon the butt are necessarily imposed upon thel primary member of the same.

Under the usual conditions the chiefstrain to be resisted by these butts is a shearing strain, resistance to which depends on the dimension of the butt in the direction of the length of the needle, the lateral dimension of the butt being at the maximum the width or gage of the needle, so that it is important to have the butt as broad as possible in this direction. Needle butts formed of a single or unreturned bend are familiar in the art, but such needles have insutlicient width of butt inthe direction of the length of the needle to resist shearing in a satisfactory manner. It is also important-to the function of the needle that the distance between both top vand bottom of the butt and the tip of the needle shall be rigidly accurate, but it has heretofore been impracticable to fix this distance by cutting away the butt connected parts of the bent or doubled butt in such needles. The rounded bent end face of the butt as hitherto formed has also necessitated a deeper engagement of the butt with needle-cams than'is sometimes desirable. u

I have now devised needles overcoming the said diiiiculties and having also butts of any desired different predetermined relative lengths in respect to the distance between the back of the needle and the highest part ofthe butt, the end face'of the butt being a machined or ground "face accurately positioned, which is a matter of importance in connection with machines having devices for differently operating needles of different heights of butt, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

y In the accompanyin drawings', which are upon an exaggerate scale,

Figure l is a side elevation of a needle shown as a latch needle illustrating one form of my invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;"

Fig. 3 is an enlarged perspective showing portion of the needle illustrated in Fig. l;

Fig. 4 is a similar view of a modified form; and

Fig. `5 similarly illustrates another modiication.

The shank -l of a needle formed of fiattened wire maybe reduced at 2 by swaging or milling as usual, and it may be provided with a hook 3, either rigid as shown or of any desired spring or other form, and may or may not be provided with a swinging latch 4 or a sliding latch. The wire of the shank l is bent forward at 5 and turned upon itself at 6 to form a return bend 7, and may, if desired, be provided with a bent tail portion 8 as shown. A flattened bend 5, 6, 7 constitutes the butt of the needle, the portions 5 and 7 being parallel and in contact., or nearly yin contact. Throughout the adjacent surfaces in contact or nearly in contact, I unite the portions 5 and 7 by brazing or hard-soldering or by a fusing operation involving additional metal, as illustrated at 9.

The crude butt 5, 6, 7 9 may now be iin- 4 -the surfaces 10 and 11,l leaving ,the wire ished to provide the exact distance between left by the flattening operation, the needle being held in a jig or templet whereby the distance vof .these surfaces from each 4other and the tip 3 is rigidly maintained.

At the same or another operation, Ithe end` face 12 of the but-t may now be formed as a plane perpendicular to the' flattened faces of the needle and parallel with its back edge 13. The. distance 12, 13 may thus be made accurate. j

Although theI last mentioned operation removes the `greater Ipart of the 'bend '6, or all of it if desired, the portion 7, 8 of the butt is firmly attached to the' portion 5 by the ybrazed orfused joint, and is a sufiicient strengthening addition to the primary member 5 to enable the needle to resist the shearing strains to 'which' it is subject. As indicated 'at 11i, Fig. 3, the same' form'- ing dies and operations, except the operation forforming the face 12, may be relied upon to cut olf a needle of a predetermined short length of butt at the plane 14. 'Nee'- dles so formed aremore rigidly accurate in the dilference ofle'ngth between long'a'nd vshort butt than those formed by prior methods. The squared end `provides*A a longer bearing 'on the buttof 'a longer-butt needle for cams positioned notto contact with a shorter butt, and differentiation of length for different operationmaythereby be made less Without loss o'f'efect.

As indicate'd'in lFig.' 4, i'tis sometimes possible to make the primary bend fand secondary bend 7 f with sufhc'i'ent accuracy of position for certain purposes, and in these cases l may dispense with forming edge 18 of the bend 5, 6, 7, while retaining the same braz'ing 9' and'pro'ducing the same surface 12 as above described in the same f' manner as above indicated.' l

As illustrated in said figure, the tail portion 8 may be left off. if desired. As illustrated in Fig.- '5,*the` primary member 'i'nz'iybe'Y bent upwardlyat 16 to formwthe secondary member 17, and the said members'may then be brazed or fused together as. described, the surface 12 [and if desired 'Y the surfaces 10 andlll'being "formed `as beforef..A l

It will be observed that the superior resiliency and standardization ofl temper` under known heat-treatment of` the. primary butt member, shank and needle-head which arefcharacteristic AofwireI needles are re,-

tained by'my' new device in connection with the improved Imechanical formof ,the butt hitherto: obtained onlyby stamping from sheet-metal the entire needle, or by forming JVthe buttlportion of isheet metal and atta/ching it to a wireshank a manner necessarily -weakenin `point of attachment.- i

What 1I vclaimfis:v 1 1. A knitting machine-needle having a g the needle-shank aty the wire shank and a butt "formed by anintegral primary bend 'of the wire shank and agsecondarybend thereof xed together` at Vadjacent Eedges by aL-fused metallicjoint, the end'faceof thebutt being squared or -faced oif in' a plane substantiallyy parallel to the back of the needle shank. 2. A knitting machine :needle rhaving a flattened wireshankand a butt formed of an integral double bendl of theshank. having primaryl and vsecondary nfiembers..fixed` vtogether bya fused metallic `joint, .the butt being vsquared or plane-facedfn its. end land' on one or more faces thereofangular ltothe shank. l

Signedby, meat'New` York, Y., thisjl twenty third dayy of October, 1916.

" fnonnnr soofrT.'

" -WALTERL.iToY,

yManni@ CURRY.: ik1 y -i Copies et this patent may b'e obtained l1to1' ve cents each,` by addressingthe Commissioner oi lPatents, 

